After hearing those words, Chen Die felt the side of her body closest to him gradually heating up, that warmth rushing to her face, which began to flush and burn.

He was too good at this.

Too skilled at enticing one to sin.

Chen Die silently moved to the side. To avoid appearing easily swayed, she ruined the atmosphere by responding: “Are you saying you’re the prince?”

“Prince Wen Liang” merely tilted his head lazily to glance at her, as if seeing through everything from her reddened face, casually yet incredibly arrogantly: “I am Princess’s everything.”

“…”

Shameless.

Their thighs were touching, and Chen Die inexplicably felt her heart itch.

She first pulled her leg back, and after a few seconds, looked at Wen Liang: “When are you leaving?”

This dismissal came so suddenly.

Wen Liang raised his eyebrows but didn’t argue with her. He stood up: “I’m going.”

Chen Die put on her denim jacket.

Wen Liang: “It’s cold outside. You don’t need to see me off.”

“It’s fine. I was planning to go to the convenience store across the street to buy something anyway.”

Chen Die was fully armed with a hat and mask. The two went downstairs together.

At this hour, there weren’t many people in the convenience store. The bright lights illuminated everything, and the cashier was sitting down, deeply focused on playing a game. When they pushed open the door, the cashier didn’t even look up and just said, “Welcome.”

Chen Die had run out of tissue paper at home a few days ago. She grabbed several packs and threw them into the basket, then also took a bottle of hand sanitizer.

Just as she was about to pay, a group of young people suddenly entered the convenience store.

Chen Die immediately lowered her head.

The biggest difference in her current life compared to before was probably that she had to be constantly careful about being recognized, especially now with Wen Liang by her side.

Wen Liang patted her butt and took the basket from her hand: “Go wait for me outside. I’ll pay.”

Chen Die: “…”

It sounded like he was trying to keep a low profile and avoid attention, but could you please keep your hands to yourself?

The group was walking towards the shelves where they were standing. Chen Die had no time to argue and quickly left, keeping her hat brim low.

The 24-hour convenience store’s illuminated sign cast a halo of light on the ground. Chen Die stood in the darkness next to the light’s edge, seeing Wen Liang standing at the checkout counter from the corner of her eye.

The man was tall with long legs, excellent body proportions, and slender, bony fingers. He was taking items out of the basket one by one, methodically and unhurriedly.

Tsk, tsk, tsk.

He’s quite handsome.

Chen Die’s mind wandered until a voice came from beside her: “Xiao Die?”

She turned around; it was Jiang Xian.

He was carrying bags of various sizes in his hands, with two stacks of document folders tucked under his arm. As a fellow CEO, he seemed to be from a different world than Wen Liang.

Later, Ye Chiqing, out of curiosity, researched Jiang Xian’s startup company and told Chen Die about it.

Jiang Xian had been the top scorer in the local college entrance examination. He studied finance at university and later started a company with his classmate. His classmate invested the initial capital, while he was responsible for operating the company and providing technical support.

Initially, the company was barely surviving without being eliminated by the rapidly changing times. Their real breakthrough came when Jiang Xian’s company’s main business happened to align with the government’s support policies. They caught a ride on the policy benefits and finally established a firm footing.

However, compared to a family enterprise like Wenren Group, Jiang Xian’s company couldn’t even be compared.

Also, because the company was in a period of rapid growth, he was so busy as CEO that he had no time left to enjoy or play.

“Jiang Xian Gege,” Chen Die greeted.

She was so used to calling him that way from before. Only after speaking did she remember that Wen Liang had been jealous about this last time.

So she instinctively glanced back, but Wen Liang was paying with his phone and didn’t seem to notice them.

Jiang Xian: “Why are you here?”

“I live here,” Chen Die said.

“What a coincidence, I live here too, Building 3.”

Chen Die exclaimed in surprise: “I’m in Building 5 right next to yours. I’ve never seen you before.”

“I just moved in not long ago.” Jiang Xian’s voice was warm. Looking at her attire, he smiled, “You must be quite busy with work, having to cover up so thoroughly when going out.”

“Mm.” Chen Die self-consciously tugged at her mask.

Jiang Xian’s hands were full of things, so he didn’t chat much longer. After saying goodbye to Chen Die, he left.

Chen Die watched his back for a while, and only looked away after seeing him enter the entrance of the residential complex. Then she suddenly paused and quickly looked behind her.

Wen Liang was pushing the door open, carrying the bag of items.

He stood five steps away from her, took out a cigarette pack, pulled one out, and held it between his teeth. Only then did he turn his head to look at her, with an ambiguous smile.

Chen Die: “…”

Her feet were rooted to the spot, unable to move, just looking at Wen Liang. What was this feeling of being caught cheating??

Wen Liang exhaled a puff of smoke and beckoned to her: “Come here.”

His manner was casual and lazy.

“…”

Chen Die shuffled over slowly, taking the initiative to say, “What’s with that expression?”

“Little girl,” Wen Liang drawled, lifting his hand and tapping the back of it against her forehead—once, twice, three times, “you’re very disobedient.”

Chen Die stumbled back a step at his third tap: “…Who wants to obey you?”

The group from the convenience store was also paying and about to come out. Chen Die pulled Wen Liang quickly back to the residential parking garage: “It’s getting late. You should head back.”

Wen Liang didn’t move, raising the cigarette in his hand: “I’ll leave after finishing this.”

Chen Die stayed by his side to keep him company.

The night was quiet. She didn’t like people smoking, but every time she saw Wen Liang smoke, she thought it looked good. She had felt this way since she was 16 and never found the smell of smoke on him unpleasant.

After a pause, Chen Die looked up at him and said: “You should smoke a bit less in the future. It’s not good for your health.”

Wen Liang looked down, smiling casually: “Got it.”

Then he immediately exhaled another puff of smoke, his agreement seeming perfunctory.

Chen Die: “Haven’t you been attending banquets lately?”

He came running to her place whenever he had free time.

“Declined them. Afraid you’d be unhappy,” Wen Liang tapped the cigarette ash with his bent fingers, then changed the subject. “Unlike some people who knowingly make me unhappy by chatting with others.”

“???”

Are you sulking right now?!

Really!!??

Chen Die truly felt what it meant for a fierce tiger to act cute.

She was stunned for two seconds, then burst into laughter. Her eyes, hidden under the brim of her hat, sparkled brightly as she looked up: “What do you have to be unhappy about? Fine, I won’t talk to any men from now on.”

Wen Liang snorted lightly, his cool hand patting her face: “Can’t you be more obedient?”

Chen Die couldn’t argue with him. After they stared at each other for a few seconds, she simply snuggled into his embrace.

This act of throwing herself into his arms was so sudden that Wen Liang even leaned back slightly, only managing to keep the hand with the cigarette away from her to avoid burning her.

Chen Die nuzzled his chest, like a cat deliberately retracting its claws to be clever, saying softly: “Alright, don’t be unhappy anymore.”

Wen Liang laughed, embracing her with his other arm, and said flirtatiously: “We’ll see how you behave.”

He was only wearing a single layer, but his body was warm. Chen Die found it comfortable to hug him and didn’t quibble over his words, narrowing her eyes as she stroked his lean back.

After a good while, Chen Die sighed: “So this is what being in a relationship feels like. It’s nice.”

Wen Liang didn’t respond.

Chen Die raised her head, resting her chin on his chest, wanting his affirmation: “Right?”

Wen Liang looked down, asking flatly: “How long do you plan to date?”

“?”

This was a dangerously edgy question.

Chen Die immediately wanted to straighten up but was pressed back down by Wen Liang as soon as she moved. She had no choice but to continue asking from within his embrace: “What, you want to break up now?”

“No, your way of dating is too torturous,” Wen Liang sighed, pinching her waist, and lowering his head to her ear to say softly: “I’m about to get sick from holding back.”

“…”

It was impossible to have a conversation with this man.

Not romantic at all, with a mind full of yellow garbage.

“I think you just love my body,” Chen Die poked his abdomen with her index finger, enunciating each word.

“You ungrateful little thing,” Wen Liang’s eyes darkened, his fingers stroking her waist up and down, his Adam’s apple bobbing, “Do you think I can’t take you right here, right now?”

The conversation couldn’t continue.

Wen Liang’s language was too crude. He had no idea how to have a pure, romantic relationship, completely shattering the beautiful atmosphere that had been in Chen Die’s mind, rapidly descending from Platonic ideals to explicit content.

“You should go now,” she urged him.

Wen Liang said flatly: “Mm.”

He took out his car keys to open the door, then suddenly turned around, grabbing Chen Die’s wrist, pressing her against the car door, cupping her face, and bending down to kiss her.

His body still carried the strong scent of tobacco, while the fingers cupping her face had the faint lemon fragrance of her home’s hand sanitizer.

In spring, Wen Liang’s lips were a bit dry, and they hurt a little as they pressed against Chen Die’s. She instinctively stuck out the tip of her tongue, tracing a circle on his lips to moisten them.

Wen Liang’s throat tightened, and he kissed her more forcefully.

After Chen Die left the restaurant that afternoon, Chen Shuyuan abandoned her three friends and left directly. She stayed in her car for a long time before driving home.

She didn’t dare go online.

She knew without checking that with Chen Die’s fan power now, she would be viciously criticized, even though she was the one who got slapped.

She had been openly and secretly competing with Chen Die for so many years, yet she could only win against Chen Die during a brief period in high school.

Chen Die was a transfer student. When she first entered the school, no one knew her. Chen Shuyuan led the girls in her class to isolate her, and the effect was quite good.

Chen Die was too beautiful, but at that time, she didn’t like to talk, and her temperament was slow and hesitant. She seemed easy to bully and became the target of attack and mockery for those rich kids.

But the boys in the class liked to play with her. Chen Die wasn’t warm towards them either, but when the boys went out to play, they would always tirelessly invite her, and even stand up for her when Chen Shuyuan and her group bullied her.

Later, she made friends with several outgoing and lively girls from other classes. She started participating in school activities with these friends, and her personality gradually changed, becoming sharp and brilliant.

She chose the path of art and was often absent from school during art exam periods. But every time she returned to school, many boys would lean out the windows to watch her. Chen Shuyuan heard people talking about Chen Die wherever she went.

That was the first time she felt Chen Die’s radiance.

By university, Chen Die’s radiance grew even stronger.

She was in the performance department. During freshman military training, she became an internet sensation due to a photo shoot, becoming known as the “campus beauty.” At that time, the school forum was filled with posts asking about her, and she attracted attention wherever she went.

Chen Shuyuan had never told anyone why she liked Lu Chuan initially.

It was because she and Chen Die had both joined the student union and were interviewed in the same batch by Lu Chuan, who was the department head at the time.

Lu Chuan had actively asked for her name first and even smiled at her.

So Chen Shuyuan had liked him painfully for so many years, until Chen Die’s horse-riding accident, when Lu Chuan rejected her again and told her that the person he liked was Chen Die.

All these years, Chen Shuyuan had lived in the shadow beneath her radiance.

She tried desperately to prove that she was better than her.

Before, she vaguely felt that as long as she stayed in the Chen family, she would never lose to Chen Die. But then what? Chen Die acted in a drama, became famous overnight, and even effortlessly snatched away her identity as Chen Shao’s cousin.

So Chen Shuyuan was no longer confined to her Chen family identity. She took internships, participated in the micro-film competition, and achieved excellent results—first place.

In Chen Shuyuan’s life, she had rarely seen this first place, because Chen Die was always ahead of her.

The script indeed wasn’t plagiarized by her; she had bought it outright from someone else. She paid what was essentially hush money, and the script was then labeled with her name.

Chen Shuyuan had ambitions, wanting both fame and profit, to obtain the titles of both director and screenwriter, so she registered for the all-original category.

But this was also understandable.

She had paid for the script.

Yet it was Chen Die who ruined her again.

Lu Chuan had chosen her, even if it ended up being in vain.

Ye Chiqing, as one of the organizers, also unprincipled, stood united with Chen Die.

Even Chen Shao acknowledged Chen Die as his sister in public and, as an investor, was unwilling to help her at all.

That evening, lights were on in the Chen family’s main residence.

Chen Shuyuan, exhausted, carried her bag inside. After changing her shoes in the foyer, she looked up to see Old Man Chen sitting on the main sofa.

She paused her steps: “Grandfather.”

Old Man Chen: “Come here.”

Chen Shuyuan felt her heart tighten, suddenly realizing something. She moved to sit opposite Old Man Chen: “What is it, Grandfather?”

“I know everything about that competition you participated in. What exactly happened?”

Old Man Chen’s tone was calm when asked, but it carried an undeniable authority.

In this family, Chen Shuyuan only dared to act spoiled and relaxed around Lin Quan. In front of Old Man Chen, she didn’t dare misbehave at all. Although he was advanced in years, the imposing manner from his days of fighting in the business circle remained.

She told everything about buying the script truthfully.

After listening, Old Man Chen asked: “Then what about the video with Xiao Die online today?”

Xiao Die.

Chen Shuyuan lowered her head and frowned in disgust. Still calling her Xiao Die, yet Chen Die had never called him grandfather even once.

“It was because of the competition. I was too eager to achieve results and wrongly entered the all-original category. That was my mistake. But now I’ve already been disqualified, and she slapped me in front of everyone. Isn’t that enough?”

“Xiao Die has never provoked you before, yet you caused her to fall from the horse and get injured. You should learn a lesson from this incident. She didn’t hold that against you, so you should have restrained yourself long ago.”

Chen Shuyuan remained silent.

She kept her head down. All the anger and grievances from the entire day, from morning to night, were finally pressing upon her at once, and she finally broke down, crying out: “I’ve told you that her falling from the horse had nothing to do with me! Why are you so biased towards her? The one who has always called you grandfather is me!”

She crouched on the ground, her bag falling beside her feet, tears dropping one by one.

Lin Quan, who had been upstairs, was startled by the sound and hurried downstairs. Seeing the scene, she was taken aback for a moment, then went over to help Chen Shuyuan up: “Dad, what’s going on?”

Old Man Chen had seen all kinds of people in his life and was skilled at judging character. With Chen Shuyuan growing up to this age, he naturally understood what kind of person his nominal granddaughter truly was.

Back then, the Chen family never intended to send Chen Shuyuan back to her birth family, after all, they had raised her for so many years. They only planned to bring Chen Die back so the two children could grow up together.

But they never expected such a twist of fate.

Chen Shuyuan cried daily in Lin Quan’s arms, begging her.

As a mother, even if blood ties were hard to sever, how could she not feel heartbroken when a daughter she had raised for 16 years was crying right beside her?

Even later, when Chen Shuyuan came home from high school, she would cry to Lin Quan about how Chen Die was treating her at school.

Originally, Old Man Chen thought Chen Die had “gone astray” by being with Wen Liang, but after meeting Chen Die in person at the school, he knew she couldn’t possibly be as Chen Shuyuan described.

“Shuyuan, I can say with a clear conscience that over the years, I have never neglected you and have always raised you as the Chen family’s granddaughter. But you can’t continue to do things that bring shame to the Chen family, nor should you constantly target and even harm Xiao Die. It’s already very commendable for a young girl like her to grow up on her own and achieve her current success.”

Chen Shuyuan cried breathlessly in Lin Quan’s arms.

Lin Quan frowned and said: “Dad, there must be a misunderstanding here. She’s told me about the script issue. She’s still young; when she makes mistakes, we correct her. As for Chen Die’s horse-riding accident, you’ve misunderstood her. Although Shuyuan can be willful at times, she would never do something that could cost someone’s life.”

“So you also know it could have cost someone’s life!” Old Man Chen slammed his cane heavily on the floor. “I’ve never interfered between you and Chen Ke, but Xiao Die is your biological daughter after all. What kind of mother are you!?”

Lin Quan was speechless.

Finally, Old Man Chen said to Chen Shuyuan: “If there’s a next time, you’ll move out of the Chen family house.”

In the middle of the night.

Old Man Chen, having grown older, was accustomed to early sleeping and early rising, but tonight he couldn’t sleep at all.

He sat at the edge of the bed, looking at the moon through the window frames.

Somehow, he recalled the scene of his first visit to the high school to find Chen Die.

At that time, she had been taken in by Wen Liang for less than a month. He had asked the principal to call Chen Die to the principal’s office.

He indeed had the old-fashioned idea of valuing blood ties more, and this visit was to bring Chen Die home. He had even decided that if she was unwilling, he would still make her acknowledge her ancestral roots today.

At that time, Chen Die stood before him. Her school uniform was a bit dirty, with several black pen marks drawn on it.

To this day, Old Man Chen didn’t know that those stains were Chen Shuyuan’s handiwork.

Old Man Chen bent down to be at eye level with little Chen Die: “Xiao Die, would you like to come home with grandfather?”

She looked at him timidly, her eyes crystal clear to the bottom, then shook her head without hesitation.

“Listen to grandfather first. You’re still young; your life hasn’t even begun yet. Returning home will give you better opportunities for the future. Wen Liang is only in his twenties; he can’t truly take care of you.”

Little Chen Die was quiet for two seconds.

“I can become who I want to be without going back with you. I don’t want to become someone like Chen Shuyuan,” she said, her voice soft yet extraordinarily firm. “Besides, Brother Wen Liang treats me very well.”

“At least, when he took me away, he asked if I wanted to go with him. You all never asked me.”

“I won’t go back with you,” little Chen Die said, head lowered. “I am not the Chen family’s granddaughter.”

…

That was Old Man Chen’s first real conversation with Chen Die.

He closed his eyes briefly, suddenly feeling heartache.

The phone on the bedside table rang. Old Man Chen’s hands had developed a slight tremor with age. He picked up the phone shakily and answered.

The voice on the other end was unfamiliar yet familiar.

“Old Man Chen,” the voice was steady, “this is Wen Liang.”

He was startled. After all these years of hostility between the Chen and Wen families with no contact, this was the first time he had received a call from Wen Liang.

He was no longer as defiant and flamboyant as when he first took Chen Die away. More things had settled within him; it was evident just from his voice.

Wen Liang didn’t wait for his response and continued: “I got your number from CEO Xiao. I’m very sorry to disturb you so late, but I wanted to talk to you about Chen Die.”

Old Man Chen put on his reading glasses and cleared his throat: “What is it?”

“You probably already know about today’s incident between Chen Die and your granddaughter. I hope you can properly discipline that granddaughter of yours and stop her from appearing before Chen Die and causing her distress.”

“She doesn’t want to have any more entanglements with your family. She has already endured and swallowed past grievances.”

Wen Liang stood by the floor-to-ceiling window in the bedroom of the western suburb villa. His arrogance surfaced again: “Even for that slap today, I felt bad that it hurt her hand.”

Wen Liang recalled how Chen Die had curled up in his arms earlier, saying “It hurt a little when I slapped her.”

Initially, he just found it funny and cute, but then he remembered how she had once, after meeting Lin Quan, sat in a hotel room drinking alcohol with red-rimmed eyes, holding back tears. He truly felt heartbroken.

How could his little girl suffer such grievances?

“You’ve probably heard about my temperament, so I’m specifically calling to let you know: Chen Die has, from the beginning to the end, been marked as belonging to my Wen family. She has nothing to do with you. So in the future, if anyone from your family dares to upset Chen Die, they won’t get off so easily with me.”

Wen Liang stopped there, not continuing further.

Old Man Chen was stunned by this series of arrogant yet matter-of-fact statements. What did he mean by saying Chen Die had always been marked as belonging to his Wen family?

But Wen Liang didn’t intend to listen to his response. After saying all that, he perfunctorily dropped a “Sorry for disturbing you so late” and hung up the phone.